Arikok National Park

Arikok National Park Reviews

The Government of Aruba has dedicated approximately 18 percent of the island to ARIKOK NATIONAL PARK. It has many walking trails that are well kept and open to the public. This massive protected area is teeming with unusual plants and wildlife.

It is located near Mt. Arikok and is a natural preserve which features some of the oldest Arawak Indian drawings, as well as trails that showcase Aruba's great variety of plants like the divi-divi and kwihi trees, rare and exotic cacti, aloe, tropical flowers, birds and iguanas.

There's also an old Aruban "Cunucu" house made of mud and grass. Cactus was used to make roof beams. A barn, pigpen area and outhouse can be found on the grounds of the old farm. The garden around the house "Casdi Torto" , is fenced off with a "trankera" a hedge made of cactus, to keep the goats out.

There is also an old Gold Mine ( Mina di oro ) which can be found along one of the trails.

There was no admittance fee charged.

Fondest memory: Hans and I, along with Ilona and Herry thought we would explore the "Cunucu" house trail and thought it was a mere 600 metres. We were fine for the first half hour, but then it started getting soooooo hot as we climbed stairs and walked up the trails. The Cunucu house was only at the half-way point. Herry guided us back to the car and we all had a huge gulp of water. So don't do what we did - forgot to take water with us as we believed it was just 600 metres - it was actually a 1.4 km trail.

To get away from the busy tourist areas, rent a car and explore the Arikok National Park on the East coast of the island. There you'll find out Aruba has more than just beaches and cocktails!

We used our friend's car which wasn't very reliable. It got overheated a couple of times. But then we just waited for 20 min. for the engine to start again and off we went.

It's a great trip. You feel like you're miles and miles awy from civilization and you really don't want your car to break down completely (yes- we were a little afraid...). But the "Jurassic Park Style" scenery is beautiful and pretty unique if you ask me. Enjoy typical Divi Divi Trees, huge cacti, many many lizards and deserted beaches.